I Think I Can, I Think I Can…No, I Think I “Jar”

Yes, the “Little Engine That Could” is a current favorite in our household, especially with little Gracey who surely feels the impending sadness of the good little boys and girls on the other side of the mountain if the train filled with toys and treats doesn't arrive by morning. A very nice story for teaching the importance of helping others and of the power of positive thinking. I'm not sure I can appreciate the materialistic message which says the boys and girls cannot be happy without new toys and treats, but it is what it is.

As a linguist, it is my job to question why we use words in the way we use them. You know, stuff like, “If beautiful means full of beauty, why doesn't awful mean full of awe?” and “Why do motors run, but they can't walk?” and “Is the name for the social media rave Twitter somehow related to the word coined by Bambi's friend Owl – Twitterpated?

A recent area of confusion for me is the term we used for the sealing food items for storage in glass jars – canning. My definition of "can" is usually something made out of metal, not glass. Well I suppose there is the porcelain variety used at the other end of food processing, but I hardly doubt that this is what is in mind in the “canning” of meats and veggies. Am I right? If so, will you join me in a crusade for changing this process' name from canning to jarring?

My family and I have been jarring a lot lately. Having been out in the remote areas for our longest stretch ever, 13 weeks, and having had an extra mouth to feed with our summer intern, we went through nearly all of our previously jarred meats, sauces and salsas. And so, after getting settled in our Addis Ababa home, we hit the local markets, this time hauling back 27 lbs of tomatoes, 4.5 lbs onions, ½ lb of whole garlic, a generous clump of cilantro, 3 lbs of carrots, and the heavy hitter to our budget – 22 lbs of freshly slaughtered beef. This time Micah and Grace went with me to get the beef and Micah's bird's-eye view allowed him to supervise the 20-minute process of the shop owners cutting and grinding it just how we had requested.

Meanwhile Andrea and Lumi were back at home dicing up the mountain of tomatoes for spaghetti sauce and salsa. Lumi did her part by sleeping silently on mommy's back.

Grace, always happy to play with water, offered a helping hand in washing the jars, lids and collars,

 …while Micah ran the blender for the tomatoes that would be used for sauce.

Eventually, everything finds its way to the stovetop where the meat is browned, the sauce is simmered and onions and garlic are roasted for extra flavorful salsa.

The grand finale includes a batch of about 20 cans taking a hot bath in the massive "jarring" pressure cooker, where they slow cook for up to 90 minutes.

The jars then cool on the counter over night.

In the morning, we check all of the seals before packing them into their transport boxes in which they make the bumpy trip down-country.

It's a full day's work, but it can be fun as well, especially with lots of little hands helping. But more than that, one full day of jarring makes for 50-some meals greatly enhanced by either slow-cooked tender meat chunks, homemade pasta sauces or salsa made just how we like it. In our down-country house where we lack the preservation power of refrigeration, these jars made up not only the foundation of our pantry, but of our menu as well.

Appreciating Elik

Inviting interns into our home is at the same time exciting, but also a bit humbling as well. Sure, for a short time, it's not all that difficult to entertain a guest such that they get to know only your best side. But after a week or two, that not-so-glamorous side of our sin natures begins to surface: my defensive pride and tendency to withdrawal under stress, Andrea's final strands of patience running thin at the dinner table, Micah's boredom and curiosity combining forces to test boundaries, Grace's tired whine echoing throughout our house, and Lumi's persistent wails trying to alert us of teeth breaking through – and so, we apologized to Eric up front for the "real life" family he was about to experience this summer. Yea, its humbling, especially with an intern like Eric, who despite having his own space to which he could retreat (small though it was), he followed his drive for social connection by spending the majority of his evenings and free time with us. Don't hear me wrong, it wasn't that we wanted him to leave us alone, rather his presence with us, his eyes and ears ever-observing, ever-processing, ever-analyzing, whether he said anything or not, we quickly began to see ourselves through his eyes – and believe me, it wasn't always pretty. Informative, convicting, and a sanctifying tool in the Holy Spirit's hands.

 We find some comfort realizing that this character sharpening is reciprocal – in other words, over the course of a full summer, interns can't hide behind their "best-face" either. Facing the challenges of living in a cross-cultural environment, starved of English-speaking peers and dumped into the discouraging process of language learning, there is plenty of time to experience both the good and the bad days. As it was with Maateyos in 2013, so also with Eric in 2015 (or as Grace called him ‘Elik’). Humbled together, we opened our home and welcomed them into our lives, knowing that they would forever be a part of our family!

There is so much that we can appreciate about Elik. His love for people, his compassion, his strong shoulders willing to carry another's burdens, his sharp mind, his love for God's word and his thirst for knowing God and making him known, all these challenge me in areas where I feel weak. 

Recognizing ways in which our personalities differed challenged me to see the world through another set of eyes. Although I won't soon change from the task-oriented person that I am, I have a renewed passion to love and value the people through which this task is being accomplished. While I will still need solitude and non-activity to recharge after a stressful week of work, I realize how weekend activities can promote healthy engagement with local churches, shared memories with my family, and a much needed break to routine, especially for Andrea and the kids who stay at home all day, every day. And although I will likely never crave meaningful social connections as much as Elik does, I am seeing our relationships with others through a new lens, which allows me to appreciate them at a much deeper level. For all this and more that I continue to learn, I have Elik to thank. I thank him for being himself in our home: giving voice to his observations as well as to his struggles. It is through honest open communication like this that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17).

My appreciation for Elik continues into the translation office. Despite never finding his groove in learning to speak the Gmz language (partly due to my failure to sufficiently help), Elik persevered enough to understand a fair amount of the language. It was on the basis of this understanding that he contributed to the project in a number of ways. He worked with the Gmz translators to draft a trilingual (Gumuz, Amharic, & English) children's book of the Easter story, which the translators are very excited to see in print soon. 

He transcribed edits for me at the writer's workshop with government language experts. He helped collect and analyze data, organize ideas, and format an academic paper on conditional clauses in the Gmz language. On the eve of his departure, he walked me through his work on this paper and together we reflected on how this study has already begun to inform our work and improve our translation of conditional clauses. 

Most of all, I appreciate Elik for his perseverance in wrestling against Microsoft Word in the process of formatting the texts of Scripture into three new booklets: Acts + 1&2 Thess + 1&2 Timothy/Titus/Philemon/James. 

Many of these texts have been translated for some time, but they have done the Gmz church no good sitting in our computers. Elik's formatting them into user-friendly booklets will get them into Gmz hands, heads and hearts in the very near future.

We thank you, Lord, for sending Elik into our family both as a friend and partner in the work of Bible translation. His unique personality and skill set contributed to our lives and the project in ways that were unexpected to us, yet we believe, intentionally planned in your wisdom. We pray for Elik and ask that you will continue to use his experiences with us this summer to shape him into the specialized tool you desire him to be, and guide him into the specific role you've designed him to fill…